Kimberly-Clark Raising Prices on Huggies, Kleenex, Cottonelle and More

KMB stock was up about 4% on Wednesday

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) announced on Wednesday that the company would be raising the prices of most of its North America products due to the rising prices of commodities in the continent.

The personal care products maker said that the move comes as the full-year commodity cost inflation will be higher than expected as it’ll be between $675 million and $775 million. This figure is roughly $250 million higher than what it assumed in April, as well as $375 million more than what it predicted in its January plan.

Kimberly-Clark added that the price hikes will be roughly in the mid-to-high single digits percentage range for most of its products. A number of its top products will be affected by the move, including its Cottonelle and Scott 1000 bathroom tissues.

The company’s Kleenex tissues, Huggies diapers, Viva paper towels, Pull-Ups training pants and more will be pricier next year. Kimberly-Clark said that the price increases for its Cottonelle and Viva products will take place in its fourth quarter, while the rest of its products will be pricier starting in the first quarter of 2019.

“We feel confident that with the commodity cost hit at this level that the cost structure for most of our competitors is similar and that there will be more broad scale price [hikes],” said Kimberly-Clark CEO Thomas Falk.